Dee Estuary Birding

Monthly Newsletter...

September 2026 Newsletter

 

Ruffs and Reeves

The Ruff is one of the strangest animals in the world. In the breeding season EVERY male looks different with a unique combination of colour and pattern. No other bird species, no mammal or anything else has this unique variety. But nobody knows why! We have a good understanding of how their leks work but the reason for every male looking different eludes us. The norm, with birds in particular, is for males to all look identical, so this is a puzzle (Ref 1).

No doubt this plumage variety is linked in some way to the fact that Ruffs have leks, only one of two species of waders to do so, the other being Great Snipe. Here is another peculiarity of Ruffs as there are three types of males in these leks - they are called 'Independent males', 'Satellite males' and 'Faeders', and these types are genetically inherited. I won't go into any great detail here but the three different male breeding strategies exist because each one does well when it is relatively uncommon, but the more common they become the worse they do, so no single strategy can ever dominate - a form of negative feedback. For those wanting to read more about Ruff leks and Sexual Selection I would strongly recommend 'Birds, Sex & Beauty' by Matt Ridley (Ref 1).

Unfortunately, breeding Ruffs are almost extinct in the UK with only nine confirmed successful breeding attempts this century, mostly on the Scottish Islands (Ref 2). We sometimes see micro-leks where just three or four males and, perhaps, one or two Reeves are involved, and these are thought to be migrants passing through and pausing here just for a few days. Two of these small leks have recently been recorded at Burton Mere Wetlands, 2017 saw four Ruffs and a Reeve in early May whilst there were four males lekking on several dates in May 2022.

A Delicious Bird

Ruffs taste good! There are records going back until at least the 15th century of hundreds being captured then fattened up before being dispatched for the table.  An example is an 1802 account which says 40-50 dozen Ruff were taken each season at Martin Mere. They were an "exceptional delicacy" and "harvested as a luxury food". Their lekking behaviour made them easy to catch and, together with loss of habitat, it meant that by the end of the nineteenth century numbers declined dramatically which, in effect, meant the end of the Ruff catching trade in the UK.

Across the North Sea in Friesland, Netherlands, the traditional catching method, called wilsternet, carried on for much longer with the practice of capture for food nor outlawed until the early 1970s. But the wilsternet tradition lives on with researchers using the knowledge of the local catchers to still catch hundreds of Ruff in order to ring, measure and monitor the birds.

Status in the UK and Western Europe

We live on the western most fringe of the Ruff's range, they breed right across northern Europe and Siberia. and most winter in Africa with Reeves travelling much further south than the Ruffs. A few of these males winter in this country, estimated to be about one thousand birds. Numbers in the UK always peak during the autumn migration, and Wetland Bird survey counts indicate a typical max of at least two thousand in August/September.

The above graph is taken from the BTO WeBS page (Ref 3), and shows how numbers of Ruffs have fluctuated since 1974. The BTO present the data as an index, with the last data point being 100, but if we assume 100 is equivalent to c2000 birds that gives us an idea of actual numbers.

The big increase between 1986 to 2002 reflects similar increases in the Netherlands, and it is said that up to 20,000 could be counted in Friesland in spring up to the year 2000 (Ref 4). The increase in the UK was certainly helped by the creation of some great bird reserves with five key areas in particular. In the early 1980s not a single Ruff was recorded by WeBS at any of these sites listed below, but by 1999 - 2004 these were the five year peak means:

Ouse Washes            280

North Norfolk Coast   113

Lower Derwent Ings   111

Nene Washes             104

WWT Martin Mere        135

Two notable counts were in the spring of 2002 with 431 on the Ouse Washes and 190 at Martin Mere, presumably these high spring counts were part of the same movement as the migrants passing through the Netherlands.

After this peak in the UK and elsewhere in north-west Europe, there followed a marked decline. This was particularly noticeable in Friesland where the big spring numbers of up to 20,000 Ruffs had dropped to less than 4,000 by 2010. A study by Verkuil et al. (Ref 5) found that the range of Ruffs had shifted eastwards, degradation of the habitat in the Netherlands meant that the birds were instead flying to the floodplains of eastern Europe, particularly in Belarus, and I quote:

"Migrants in Friesland decreased from 2001 to 2010 by 66%, amounting to a loss of 21,000 individuals when counts were adjusted for length of stay as determined by resightings. In the same period numbers in Pripyat (Belarus) increased by 12,000. Ruffs individually ringed in Friesland were resighted in subsequent springs at increasingly eastern sites including Pripyat."

The Dutch are trying to reverse this decline with schemes such as Plas-dras, basically flooding segments of intensive agricultural pastures with a shallow layer of fresh water between February and June. Unfortunately, this has had little impact on Ruff numbers as yet but it has been very good for the local breeding waders such as Black-tailed Godwits, Lapwings and Avocets (Ref 6).

Although the range of both migrating and breeding Ruffs have undoubtedly shifted eastwards, there are still many thousands of Ruff lekking in Fennoscandia and it is very likely that it is these birds we see migrating through the Dee Estuary and elsewhere in Cheshire in spring and autumn.

Dee Estuary

With their preference for fresh water sites Ruffs had always been regarded as a scarce bird on the Dee Estuary but the opening of RSPB Inner Marsh Farm in 1992, and its expansion into Burton Mere Wetlands in 2011, has meant that they are now regular visitors and, with the exception of June, present every month of the year.

However, pre 1992 there was the occasional visit of a sizable flock with 1974 being exceptional when 300 were spotted on Burton Marsh on September 7th that year, these weren't feeding but there had been reports of 100 or more feeding on Shotwick Fields a few days earlier. These are the only three figure counts I can find for the Dee Estuary and 300 remains the highest ever count, not only for the Dee Estuary, but for the whole of Cheshire and Wirral. Prior to IMF opening the only other significant counts appears to be 40 in Shotwick Fields in Sep 1979 with the same number on Burton Marsh in September 1980.

Two years after the opening of Inner Marsh Farm, there was a remarkable influx of Ruff into Britain in May 1994, with 65 birds recorded at the reserve. This remains the highest count recorded at Burton Mere/Inner Marsh Farm.

The seasonal pattern at Inner Marsh Farm was unusual. Between 2002 and 2005, Ruff numbers peaked in March, with an average of almost 20 birds, followed by a rapid decline through April and May. This was much more reminiscent of the pattern in the Netherlands, where the principal passage occurs in March and April, than of Britain as a whole, where numbers peak in late summer.

Following the expansion of Inner Marsh Farm into the much larger Burton Mere Wetlands in 2011, the pattern changed dramatically. The spring peak disappeared and was replaced by a pronounced autumn peak, with an average of almost 20 Ruff in September and 15 in October. The overall numbers using the site have remained broadly similar, but the timing of their occurrence has changed from predominantly spring to predominantly autumn. The change of counts for March was particularly noticeable with a peak of 20 in 2004 dropping to zero by 2013. It seems very likely that this cessation of the spring migration was related to the sharp declines that were happening in the Netherlands over the same period, although since 2013 there has been some recovery in spring migrants with 21 in April 2024 being particularly noteworthy.

The bar chart below shows the annual max at Burton Mere Wetlands since it was opened in 2011.

For a passage migrant numbers of Ruff have been remarkably consistent, with a welcome increase over the last two years. Peak counts for these years have all been in autumn when the birds will have been in less of a hurry to pass through and the consistent water levels have held the birds in the reserve. The annual peak is usually either in August or September and the highest count for both these months was in 2023 with 37 in August and 35 in September. The peak in 2024 was unusually late with 38 on October 28th.

Ruffs do turn up elsewhere on the estuary and noteworthy records were 20 at Neston Old Quay and 22 at Decca Pools, both in September 2023. They are scarcer on the Welsh side of the estuary but there are two fairly recent records of interest with twelve at Connah's Quay in September 2017 and six juveniles at Gronant in September 2022. Surprisingly, perhaps, they used to be fairly regular on Hilbre with two or three seen most autumns, but they have recently become much scarcer and the last record of more than one that I can find is of three in August 2007.

Frodsham Marsh

This bar chart for Frodsham Marsh makes for an interesting contrast with the equivalent for Burton Mere. Here there is no managed scrape system and water levels vary a lot between seasons and between years. As can be seen 2017 was exceptional, and in September and October No. 6 Tank had a nice level of fresh water in it, too much for small waders but it seems to have been ideal for Ruffs. Numbers built up quickly at the end of September with 47 on the 28th and 110 on the 30th. The first two weeks of October saw no less than five three-figure counts with a maximum of 134 on the 9th. But the Ruffs weren't just at Frodsham Marsh and the total for the Mersey Estuary was a record breaking 198 including 31 on Hale Marsh and 45 on Ince Banks. It seems to have been quite a localised passage as there was nothing out of the ordinary at Burton Mere Wetlands with a max of 23 in September, but 25 on Neston Marsh on October 6th was unusual and presumably part of the same movement.

Previous high counts at Frodsham include 150 in January 1977 and 72 in September 1980. There have been two notable spring counts recentlywith 30 in March 2016 and 41 in April 2018.

Sandbach Flashes

2002 is when I first started writing the Ruff species account for the Cheshire & Wirral Bird Report and at that time the Sandbach Flashes was the most important site in the county. Numbers were just starting to come down from a high of 37 reached in January 1994 but counts were still good, with 28 in 2002 and 27 in 2003. The open flashes and shallow muddy edges seem to have been ideal habitat for them. The graph above shows the monthly distribution at that time with a clear mid-winter peak, the lack of any spring migration and just a weak autumn passage was also typical of the flashes at that time.

By 2005 there was already signs of a decline with a peak of just 15 that year, and, sadly, that decline continued so that 20 years later there were no Ruffs at all reported in the Cheshire & Wirral Bird Reports between 2021 and 2023. Looking at the WeBS data and other estimates of Ruff numbers (Ref 7) there doesn't seem to have been any significant change in over-wintering numbers in the country as a whole so this appears to be a local change. The evidence I've read in various bird forum threads indicates that habitat succession has led to an increase of willow, reeds and other vegetation, so there is no longer any significant amount of exposed mud. Changes to water management may also be to blame with high water levels reducing the amount of suitable habitat.

Summary

he last 30 years have seen major changes in the Ruff population in western Europe, with a significant eastward shift in the species' range. This has resulted in a dramatic decline in the numbers passing through the Netherlands. Numbers in the UK, although much smaller, have also declined, but nowhere near as dramatically as those across the North Sea. Against this background, it is interesting to compare three very different Cheshire sites.

1. RSPB Inner Marsh Farm/Burton Mere Wetlands – A pronounced spring peak in the early 2000s has now shifted to an autumn peak. Numbers have held up well and have shown a recent increase.

2. Frodsham Marsh – Changing conditions from month to month and year to year can result in big fluctuations in numbers. When conditions are right, large numbers can be present, as demonstrated by the exceptional count in 2017.

3. Sandbach Flashes – Traditionally the county's most important wintering site for Ruff, but numbers have now plummeted to almost zero, probably as a result of habitat succession and the consequent loss of suitable feeding habitat.

References

1. Matt Ridley, Birds, Sex & Beauty, Harper Collins, 2025.

2. Mark Eaton, Rare breeding birds in the UK in 2023, British Birds November 2025.

3. Frost, T.M, Calbrade, N.A., Birtles, G.A., Feather, A., Hiza, B.M., Caulfield, E.B., Balmer, D.E., Peck, K., Wotton, S.R., Shaw, J.M. & Woodward, I.D. 2026., Waterbirds in the UK 2024/25 (BTO).

4. Dutch Centre for Field Ornithology (https://stats.sovon.nl/).

5. Yvonne I. Verkuil et al., Losing a staging area: Eastward redistribution of Afro-Eurasian ruffs is associated with deteriorating fuelling conditions along the western flyway, Biological Conservation, Vol 149, Issue 1, May 2012.

6.  Grass Bird Habitats LIFE IP (EU Project), News Blog - https://www.grassbirdhabitats.eu/news/news-blog.

7. Emma Caulfield et al., Overwinter population estimates of waterbirds in Great Britain, British Birds, Vol 118 December 2025.

Counts published in the Cheshire & Wirral Bird Reports and North-east Wales Bird Reports have also been used, with thanks to CAWOS and the Clwyd Bird Recording Group.

Richard Smith

Colour Ring Report

We've seen a lot of colour ringed birds over the past few weeks and below is a sample of the more interesting ones. Among the total we have recorded 18 colour-ringed Sandwich Terns but are still waiting for feedback for almost half of these, I'll do a Sandwich Tern 'special' in a future Newsletter, including details of this year's breeding season.

Great White Egret

Red (ABM)
ringed at Shapwick Heath, Somerset, in April 2022 as a chick.
After flegdling it flew north-east to East Yorkshire where it was recorded at Buckton and RSPB Blacktoft Sands, then down to Winterton in Lincs, all in July 2022, before relocating to RSPB Old Moor (S Yorks) in October.
The only record in 2023 was at Burton Mere Wetlands in July.
Two years later, in July 2025, it made the news as one of the first Great White Egrets to breed in Wales at Cors Ddyga, Anglesey (there were two pairs).
See: http://www.rspb.org.uk/whats-happening/news/what-e-gret-win-for-welsh-nature
Recorded at Burton Mere Wetlands on 06/08/2026.

Little Egret

White T Green P
Ringed at Hale duck Decoy in May 2026, as a chick
Recorded at Hilbre on 03/08/2026.

Every year we see several of these newly ringed juveniles, most are recorded off Heswall and Thurstaston so it was good to see this one at Hilbre for a change.

Shelduck

Blue (HL)
Ringed at Withymoor Pool, Shropshire,  in January 2022.
Recorded at Thurstaston Shore on 16/08/2026.

This is the fifth Shelduck recorded over the past three years which has been ringed at Withymoor Pool. The pool is basically just a large pond in farmland in the middle of Shropshire, but is obviously very attractive to Shelducks.

Curlew

W - BN (satellite tagged)
Ringed near Abbeystead in the Forest of Bowland during the 2023 breeding season, as a breeding female.
It is one of several Curlews breeding in the Forest of Bowland which have been fitted with a satellite tag. The first map shows the route it takes flying from the breeding area to the Dee Estuary where it has spent the last three winters. The second is a 'heat' map of it's accumulated movements over those three winters and demonstrates how very site faithful it is.
As far as I know there has never been any sight records of this bird on the Dee Estuary, it appears to roost on the marsh just off Flint Castle so that's certainly one to look out for.

Knots

The knots returned in August, we won't see the big flocks arrive here on the Dee Estuary for a couple of months yet but 1,500 at Connah's Quay NR was a good count for August and included these two with orange flags.

Orange flag (59P)/Green
Ringed at Ainsdale in early May 2024 as a 2cy.
As a young non-breeding bird it was recorded at Seaforth in June 2024, then on several dates in August and September before it was spotted in Bangor Harbour in December.
September 2025 saw it at Connah's Quay before visits to Bangor and Heysham in early 2026.
Recorded twice at Connah's Quay NR in August 2026.

Orange flag (27T)/White
Ringed at Bangor Harbour in March 2024 as a 2cy.
There were 21 records at Formby/Seaforth/Leasowe/Meols between April and September 2024.
March 2025 saw it at Thurstaston, it then spent from April to July at Seaforth.
It was at Bangor Harbour in February 2026 and at Thurstaston in March, before being spotted at Connah's Quay NR on 12/08/2026.

Dunlin

O - Y(LYE)
Ringed at Ynyslas (Dyfi estuary) in September 2025, as a juvenile.
Recorded at Hilbre on 08/08/2026.

This is the 16th Dunlin that has been colour-ringed at Ynyslas which we have seen on the Dee Estuary over the past few years. 

Black-tailed Godwits

With big numbers of Black-tailed Godwits at Caldy in August we spent much time scanning through the flock and logged a total of 58 records of 22 individual ringed birds. A lot were ones we've seen before but below is the history of a new one for us.

BWL - W=

Ringed at Clonakilty Bay, County Cork, Ireland, in January 2025, as an adult.
It was recorded twice at RSPB Snettisham in August 2025.
By October 2025 it was back in County Cork, but was only seen once before turning up at the Owenabue Estuary (County Cork) in March 2026.
Recorded three times at the Caldy Wildfowl Collection in the second half of August 2026.

Interesting that it spent August 2025 at Snettisham, Norfolk, and then moved to the other side of the country in 2026 - the Blackwits are usually very site faithful.

Redshank

Y flag N//GY
Ringed at Eyvindartunga (east of Reykjavik), Iceland, on 03/06/2026 as a breeding adult.
Recorded on Heswall Shore three times during August 2026.

This is only our second Redshank colour-ringed in Iceland, the first one was recorded last year.

Lesser Black-backed Gull

Green (N:3LX)
Ringed at Liverpool University Buildings on 29/06/2026 as a chick.
Recorded on New Brighton beach on 28/07/2026.

A new ringing site for us. This was ringed as part of the North West England Gull Project, they ring a lot of gulls on the United Utilities areas of Bowland Fells and this year have ringed a very good total of 326, mostly Lesser Black-backed Gulls. So we will be keeping an eye out for those.

Take a look at their website - https://www.nwgulls.org.uk/ - they have recovery maps for the gulls they have ringed and it's fascinating to see how much further the Lesser Black-backed Gulls range compared to Herring Gulls. The former have been seen all the way from northern Norway to the Gambia in West Africa, whereas nearly 100% of the Herring Gulls were recovered between Carlisle and Cornwall, with just one outlier in northern Spain.

Mediterranean Gull

Yellow (AT.JC)
Ringed at Riether Werder (Baltic coast) in NE Germany, in June 2021 as a breeding adult.
It was first seen at Seaforth in August 2021 since when it has become a regular around the mouth of the estuary and recorded from Crosby in the north to Central Park Wallasey to the south, and as far west as Leasowe. There are several winter records for 2022/23 and 2024/25.
There is one breeding record back in north-east Germany, at Korkwitz near Ribnitz, that was in April 2024.
Recorded on New Brighton Beach on 27/07/2026.

Colour Rings were recorded by Richard Smith, Stephen Hinde, Tony Ormond, Sean O'Hara, Tim Kinch, Colin Schofield, Elliot Montieth, Alan Hitchmough, Mike Pollard, Peter Haslem and Richard Speechley.

Richard Smith

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August Bird News

This fantastic photo marked a great start to August, this is one of two Black Storks first seen on July 31st off Parkgate, they were still present the next day before heading east. Later that same day they were seen at Gibralter Point on the east coast.

Next to arrive were two nice waders with a White-rumped Sandpiper at Meols and a Temminck's Stint at Burton Mere Wetlands, both were still present the following day.

A few Wood Sandpipers were recorded starting off with an unexpected juvenile on Meols Shore on the 4th. One was at Burton Mere Wetlands early in the month and a single at Parkgate was there for almost three weeks, with three recorded on the 19th. Parkgate also saw a good Greenshank passage with a max of 41 at high tide on the 12th, 17 were in the channel at Heswall on the 24th.

Single adult Curlew Sandpipers were recorded at Meols and Hoylake over eight days between the 4th and 18th, looking at the plumages (in moult) we think two different birds were seen. The first juvenile Curlew Sandpiper turned up at Meols on the 27th, followed by singles at Parkgate and Heswall over the next two days. Single Little Stints were recorded on seven days at Meols this month, and two were at Parkgate between the 10th and 12th.

A record count of 6890 Black-tailed Godwits were at Caldy on the 16th, with good numbers also at Connah's Quay on the same day the total for the whole estuary was over 10,000 - which just happened to be the day for the monthly Wetland Bird Survey and it's very likely to be the highest count in the country.

A decent Ringed Plover passage included 605 at Point of Ayr on the 18th and 600 at Hoylake on the 31st.

Spoonbills were at Parkgate all month with a peak of 16 on the 28th. Also at Parkgate was a juvenile Hen Harrier on the 9th, it or another was off Burton and Heswall later in the month.

Sea-watching was quiet with just three records of single Arctic Skuas of note. Sandwich Terns reached 380 at Gronant on the 9th and 500 at Hilbre on the 25th.

I tend to associate Yellow Wagtails with spring migration, and normally expect to see them along North Wirral. So it was a big surprise when a large number turned up in August in the Heswall Fields area - between Tinker's Dell and Target Road. 20, including many juvs, were seen as early as the 2nd, then over 100 were close to Tinker's Dell on the 10th with good numbers present over the next two days.

Yellow Wagtails south of Tinkers Dell, Thurstaston August 10th © Mark Gibson